December 20, 2011

"Smart and ruthless."/"Diplomats who dealt with him describe Kim as shrewd and calculating."/"In a demented sort of way, brilliant."/"Tactically brilliant."/"A very cunning person and very smart person."/"Was profoundly important around the world. I actually met him when I traveled there with Madeleine Albright."

Bush was the devil. George W. Bush was stupid, and he was the devil. He was the devil incarnate and Kim Jong-il, now Kim Jong-dead, very cunning, very smart person, profoundly important around the world. "I actually met him when I traveled there with Madeleine Albright." Speaking of Madeleine Albright, here she is, a montage of her on Kim Jong-il, now Kim Jong-dead, between 2003-2006.

ALBRIGHT: He said that he would really have loved to have been a movie director. He knew a lot about American movies and had suggestions for Oscar nominations and, you know, he also liked American sports, he liked Michael Jordan. It was possible to talk with him. He's not a nut. I think that's the main kind of point. I think that it's important actually not to make fun. He wanted me to e-mail with him. I think the thing that's interesting, Larry, is I do not believe that he's crazy. I know a lot of people have said that. I don't think so.

RUSH: It's a montage of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright talking about Kim Jong-il, now Kim Jong-dead. He was a murdering tyrant. His people are among the poorest in the world and he's spoken of here in reverent terms. The best thing he had going for him, as far as these people are concerned, was he's not a Republican, he wasn't a conservative. Hitler and Stalin both loved American movies, too. This guy loved Michael Jordan. Wow, there's really a lot to recommend him. Bachmann and Perry are stupid. Kim Jong-il, not a nut, it would be a mistake to say that he's a nut.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is one of the highest level Western diplomats ever to meet Kim Jong-il. She met with him on a state visit to North Korea in 2000. At an appearance in Pittsburgh last week, Albright said that she wanted to make a statement when meeting him, so she wore a very large American Flag pin. She also wore heels to appear taller, but that was all for naught, as Kim also wore heels.

Could be I'm misremembering, but this is from a poly-sci assoc prof I had that was a S.Korean national. She mentioned that Il had such a love for cinema, American movies in particular, that he kidnapped a director and an actress (back when his daddy was running things) in order to make his own movie.

Hell, unless a sociopath actually eats their vicitms or becomes CEO of a corporation, the liberal cannot see him.

If he heads a "people's" revolution and murders millions by forced starvation, he's "not a nut", but made the trains run on time, dreamed of being a director, and shot 5 holes-in-one every time he played golf. Prolly liked dogs and long walks on the beach, too.

There was no shortage of liberals (or people of all political stripes) who referred to Kim Jong Il as an evil man whose passing was a good thing. Anyone who claims otherwise is an imbecile, a liar or a Rush Limbaugh fan. But I repeat myself.

On the one hand, he was, yes, a murderous tyrant. But on the other, he's different from most of the usurpers and power-hungry despots around the world in that he inherited his absolute power. And grew up being told he was the son of a a living god. Not even the Korean Kings were raised in such a delusional environment. He was what his father raised him to be.

On a different note, I found the use of "failed state" in this NYT article to be kind of astonishing. I thought "failed state" used to be the term we used to describe places like Somalia and Afghanistan where there had been a complete failure of central authority, so there was no effective governing apparatus at all. North Korea is the precise opposite of that -- a place where the state has been so successful that every other form of organization of society has been completely forced out. It's the grotesque final perfect form of the state -- absolute domination, absolute control. But I guess "failed state" now just means a state we don't like, or a place where people are starving or something?

"KUHN: The death of his father in 1994 thrust Kim Jong-il into the spotlight. The following year, economic collapse plunged the country into roughly three years of famine that killed more than two million people.

B.R. Myers is head of the International Studies Department at Dongseo University in South Korea. He says that even with the regime's many tools of repression, it's amazing that Kim was able to prevent a massive exodus of starving refugees.

B.R. MYERS: When he took over the country in 1994, with the economy already in freefall and the country really having lost its main benefactor in the Soviet Union, and when you think that we were all predicting North Korea's downfall within one or two years back then, I mean, when you think about how well he played that card, it really is quite extraordinary."

"KUHN: North Korea announced it tested its first atomic bomb in 2006. Pyongyang then played the nuclear card in a game of brinksmanship. It promised to disarm, but then backtracked if it felt slighted or wanted more political and economic benefits in return. President George W. Bush maligned Kim Jong-il as a moral pygmy and placed North Korea squarely on his so-called axis of evil, along with Iran and Iraq.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world by seeking weapons of mass destruction. These regimes pose a grave and growing danger.

KUHN: Pyongyang pointed to Washington's rhetoric as evidence that the U.S. was poised to attack the North or seek regime change. Kim Jong-il used the threat of U.S. hostility, meanwhile, to divert domestic attention from economic hardships. Zhang Liangui is a North Korea expert at the Chinese Communist Party's Central Party School in Beijing. Zhang says Kim's reading of his regional opponents was spot-on, and he was effective in exploiting the differences among them.

ZHANG LIANGUI: (Through translator) North Korea is a small and weak country, yet Kim was able to manipulate so many big countries in its hand. Kim made the other countries in the six-party talks dance to his tune, and there was nothing the other parties could do about it.

KUHN: In other words, North Korea is a small country shaped by the big powers surrounding it: China, Russia, Japan and the U.S. But Korea's geo-strategic position in Asia is such that a shrewd tactician - perhaps with a little nuclear clout - can turn the peninsula into a tail that wags quite a few dogs. "Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Beijing.

"" I mean, when you think about how well he played that card, it really is quite extraordinary.""

Or he could just have been crazy and paranoid. It would look exactly the same. The rest of the world would never have forced him to do anything. That is mostly a function of our ineptitude rather than his shrewdness. Again, if you want to, you can see it either way.

I don't generally take homework assignments or answer "when did you stop beating your wife" or "prove to me the sun rises in the East" questions, particularly from people who ask in bad faith like you, Pogo. But if you want a commentary roundup on Kim Jong Il, one can find lots of comments on his passing on various news sources. On good place to look for a roundup is at Andrew Sullivan's website, under "Kim Jong Il Reax". There are comments there from people of all stripes. That's one cite, you can find more.

Others there talked about his evil, Pogo. They may have used other words like "No RIP Here" or mockery to prove their point, but there was no liberal mourning there. And the lead editorial right now at The New Republic is about Jong Il, called "The Worst Man". But don't let me interrupt the daily Two Minutes Hate that the Limbaugh crowd needs for sustenance.

Ms Albright thought he was brilliant because of the way he wrapped her around his little finger.

But a lot of bad guys did that.

The Drill SGT said...

Carpe Diem has an image that shows with horror the impact the Kims have had on their country.

When the Germany's unified, it paupered the nation for a generation. The Unification of the Koreas will cost 10 times as much in treasure and upheaval.

Which is why the Red Chinese are very afraid of seeing that day. When Pyongyang collapses, a lot of Norks will flee in their direction.

somefeller said...

There was no shortage of liberals (or people of all political stripes) who referred to Kim Jong Il as an evil man whose passing was a good thing. Anyone who claims otherwise is an imbecile, a liar or a Rush Limbaugh fan. But I repeat myself.

Some phony folksy shows his delusions of adequacy once more.

What distinguished Rush from his predecessors (Wally George, Morton Downey, etc.) is that he's a pretty good analyst and the people who follow him see that.

Good point, Pogo, most North Korean people have a very low carbon footprint and explore alternative energy/food sources on a daily basis.

Also, our own National Public Radio could learn a little something from the Dear Leader about getting its message out: I envision a premium blend of Putumayo world music, global warming updates, news from Obama's vacation etc over loudspeakers at every national plaza.

"... I don't generally take homework assignments or answer "when did you stop beating your wife" or "prove to me the sun rises in the East" questions, particularly from people who ask in bad faith like you, Pogo..."

Liberals tend to have love affairs with leftwing and communist dictators. That's why lefties think its fashinable to sport t shirts with Che or Mao, have swooning interviews with Castro.

'"Smart and ruthless."/"Diplomats who dealt with him describe [him] as shrewd and calculating."/"In a demented sort of way, brilliant."/"Tactically brilliant."/"A very cunning person and very smart person."/"Was profoundly important around the world.'

I will never understand people who can meet someone like Castro or Kim Jong Il or Chavez, and come away talking about how charming or smart they are. When you know even the tiniest bit of truth about despots, how can you agree to meet them at all?

You shouldn't have to read The Screwtape Letters to understand how the guy works.

The Drill SGT wrote:When the Germany's unified, it paupered the nation for a generation. The Unification of the Koreas will cost 10 times as much in treasure and upheaval.

The integration of the former DDR was an expensive proposition, but it hardly paupered Germany, the strongest economy on the Continent since at least the mid-1970s. Integration reduced the growth of their GDP, but it never went negative more than a few quarters at a stretch. By 1992 their GDP began a long, steady upward trend that didn't falter until 2009. Germany is in quite a fix now, but that comes from propping up the PIIGs, propping up the Euro, and propping up the whole damned EU project generally, and not from re-unification.

Re-unification presented a lot of challenges -- privatization of formerly state-owned enterprises, the renovation of factories, apartment blocks and public buildings to a minimum acceptable level of safety and habitability, and the general environmental clean-up (for all their "green" blather Leftist become the worst environmental offenders when they get their hands on power) but the biggest challenge was psychological. The common virtues of the capitalist work ethic, punctuality, initiative, quality control, customer service, and the conviction that success derives from excellence of performance, things one tends to associate with Germans automatically, were lacking in the East German labor force. Just before the Wall fell the DDR was one of the worst performing economies in the whole Soviet Bloc, behind Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Russia herself. Take a look at a Trebant (drive one if you dare) and you'll know everything about the Socialist work ethic in practice.

If the Koreas ever do merge Seoul will be faced with all of the challenges which confronted Bonn -- and then some, and in spades! The Drill SGT's cost estimate is probably low. Vastly complicating the picture is a problem unique to North Korea -- North Koreans -- 23 million Sadomasochists, 23 million self-abasing robots who would be classified as psychopaths if allowed to run loose in any normal country. Anybody over age 4 will be a nearly hopeless basket case.

Yeah, I know I being cruel to an elderly woman, but anyone who would speak of any member of the Kim dynasty in any terms other than human shit who deserves nothing less than permanent residence in the deepest, darkest oubliette devisable deserves worse than I can dish out.

Funny, I didn't mention my level of patriotism in my comments here. If you're going to be an effective troll, you need to do better than that. And have you been a disappointment to your parents since childhood or is this a more recent condition?

No, I'm just killing a little time before dinner. And like I said, if you want to be an effective troll, don't use non sequiturs.

By the way, have you always been the sort of sad little fellow who spends his life trying to get attention from his betters? Please share, I've always found psychology to be a vaguely interesting subject.

But now the obsessive documenting of Kim’s eccentricities threatens to overshadow the most basic fact about him: No single person who lived in the last few decades has inflicted as much suffering and cruelty on others.